Religion is a form of refuge and explanation. The purpose of it is to give people an explanation of our existence for it is only a figment of our imagination. It is a theory for all things. Why are we here? God created us for some great purpose in his divine plan. Why is this happening to me? God is testing you. Why am I unhappy? You have not been faithful to God. What will happen after death? You will either go to heaven or hell. Why should I not commit crimes? God will send you to hell. It is also a refuge from the real world. People feel safe around a church because of a belief that they are protected by a greater being. Religion may also be called a "placebo" to life. A church is just another place, why does it protect us? or a better question, how? All of this is part of human nature, to turn to something or someone, that is why religion exists at all. Different cultures have different religions, but at the end, they're all the same. Most religions say don't do bad, do good and good things will happen to you. Most religions say there is a God or greater being that created us all and we should praise it.

Throughout the course of history, many people go to war because of difference in religion. But their religions are pretty much the same, so why do we do these stupid things? And if God (if there is one) and he is so powerful, why does he cause us to fight each other? My explanation is that religion and God is just all in our minds, it doesn't exist, WE do all the stupid things that we do because it's human nature and that's that.

This is one of those nodes that requires consideration before adding a write up...

I think that neiken got it a bit mixed up, I think it is because we evolve our morals, that we are able to sustain larger societies, and thus better standards of living. After all the realization of our limits implies there are things beyond them, and while we may reflect our social and cultural patterns in our explanation of these things, we also transcend these to create a better world. Society isn't about taking after all, it is about giving, hunter-gatherers were more about taking than we are. I imagine that future societies will be more about giving to each other than we are still, and that there will be greater co-operation than now, and that this will be in part because of the morality we are creating now.